Luis Roberto Burgos, a photographer who recently produced a photobook Haggadah retelling the Passover story in modern-day images, was selected as one of the New York Jewish Week’s 36 to Watch (formerly 36 Under 36). This distinction honors leaders, entrepreneurs and changemakers who are making a difference in New York’s Jewish community. Burgos, who helps arrange ritual and holiday observances for Manhattan’s “artist-driven, everybody-friendly” congregation Lab/Shul, lives in Brooklyn.
For the full list of this year’s “36ers,” click here.
New York Jewish Week: Tell us about yourself and the work you do.
Burgos: I am a Black, Queer, Jewish, neurodiverse earthling based in Bushwick, Lenape land. Born in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and raised throughout the boroughs of New York City, I lived in Los Angeles from 2013 to 2018. My photography is often based in literature and my writing is visual and sensory. I tell stories using photographs and poems. My most recent accomplishment is creating and printing my first photobook, “Moses of the City.” This photographic, fully functional haggadah went out to a few hundred families and was the centerpiece at Lab/Shul’s 5782 seder. I also received a grant from the Jews of Color Initiative to make said seder the first Jews of Color-centered seder there.
